Supersymmetry Breaking and Soft Terms in M-Theory

TL;DR

This paper explores how supersymmetry breaking via gaugino condensation in M-theory leads to soft mass terms of the order of the gravitino mass, avoiding issues present in weakly coupled models.

Contribution

It demonstrates that in strongly coupled heterotic M-theory, soft supersymmetry breaking terms are naturally of the gravitino mass scale without the small gaugino mass problem.

Findings

Soft masses are of order the gravitino mass.

The model avoids the small gaugino mass problem.

Supersymmetry breaking is mediated through gravitational interactions.

Abstract

We investigate gaugino condensation in the framework of the strongly coupled heterotic $E_8 \times E_8$ string (M--theory). Supersymmetry is broken in a hidden sector and gravitational interactions induce soft breaking parameters in the observable sector. The resulting soft masses are of order of the gravitino mass. The situation is similar to that in the weakly coupled $E_8 \times E_8$ theory with one important difference: we avoid the problem of small gaugino masses which are now comparable to the gravitino mass.